A humongous storm is supposedly coming. I feel more than a little like I’m waiting for Godot.
Nothing to be done.
We’re supposed to get 3-5 inches of the fluffy stuff. One can only hope. I was about to practice on my bike, but the sleet started.
The first day of winter was warm and foggy this year. It lent itself to great atmospheric pictures, if you like that sort of thing. It’s the sort of weather where even mundane dirt roads take on a Tolkienesque touch of mystery.
The lake is still out for the winter, but with the rain, back up to a normal pool. There’s a mudbank out there, but most of it is underwater.
The racoons still enjoyed it.
You may have noticed that I use many Gilray cartoons to illustrate my regency writing. There are several reasons for this, but mostly because he’s funny, to the point, and full of little details.
There’s a more recent English cartoonist, Giles (Carl Giles), who wrote for the Daily express from 1945 to 1991. The express paid better than the papers which aligned better with his political beliefs, which must have led to some interesting tensions.
I’m going to stick to fair use and only put up a couple examples, but they’re a modern example that is in the same spirit as Gilray’s work.
By the way, I love Grandma.
Many of the cartoons skewer politicians.
The English are very proud of their gardens.
Cuddles and hugs all around.
The Elk Range Trail is a short (3.3 mile) trail in the Centennial Cone county park near Golden Colorado. Getting there is a scenic drive from the city, whether you use the twisty route 6 or the interstate 70, then cut north. Be warned, on weekends mountain biking and hiking pick alternate days (hikers on odd days, bikers on even ones). 
We were doing a flying visit and so only had time to do an out and back walk, but the loop with the Travois trail would be even better.
Lookout Mountain is in the distance in this picture from the other car park.
While making a flying visit out west for various personal reasons, I had a chance to drive up to the top of Lookout Mountain near Golden Colorado. I had to be a tad careful on the road up the mountain as it is a popular (and dashed strenuous) bicycle ride. Wild Bill Hickock and his wife’s graves are at the top, but I didn’t feel like paying the $5 admission to the museum.
The views are fantastic.
This shows Golden, the Coors plant, and the Table Mesas. If you look carefully, you can see traces of the K-T boundary in the South Mesa (right hand one). They’re about as far down from the bottom of the cliff as the top is up. It’s a line in the vegetation where the discontinuity traps water or lets the roots grow deeper.
Denver
Wild Bill’s grave.
More views.
We did a bit of pub-crawling – which means something else when you’re walking this far from town to try the Cannonball Creek brewery.
The view from the Brewery back into Golden
A town scene. Historic means something else in the American west. Coming from the east where buildings are a touch older and knowing the UK pretty well – where things are truly old – I found this disorientating.
A wild sunflower.
(and by the way – a liter engined car is perfectly fine in the mountains – don’t let the rental people upsell you.)
The Deer are browsing the acorns and getting ready for the winter.
Trumbull Stickney, 1874 – 1904
These autumn gardens, russet, gray and brown,
The sward with shrivelled foliage strown,
The shrubs and trees
By weary wings of sunshine overflown
And timid silences,—
Since first you, darling, called my spirit yours,
Seem happy, and the gladness pours
From day to day,
And yester-year across this year endures
Unto next year away.
Now in these places where I used to rove
And give the dropping leaves my love
And weep to them,
They seem to fall divinely from above,
Like to a diadem
Closing in one with the disheartened flowers.
High up the migrant birds in showers
Shine in the sky,
And all the movement of the natural hours
Turns into melody.
One of the unfortunate side-effects of the drought this fall has been the difficulty of taking good pictures of the wildlife. It’s worse for the wildlife – at least I have food and water – but there aren’t the normal plethora of fall flowers and butterflies.
The featured image shows a neat spider.
It’s been an insane year, spring flooding, followed by extreme heat and now dry.
Normally by now we’d have seen things like these:
I hope it’s better soon.
Florence Ripley Mastin
Night fell one year ago, like this.
He had been writing steadily.
Among these dusky walls of books,
How bright he looked, intense as flame!
Suddenly he paused,
The firelight in his hair,
And said, “The time has come to go.”
I took his hand;
We watched the logs burn out;
The apple boughs fingered the window;
Down the cool, spring night
A slim, white moon leaned to the hill.
To-night the trees are budded white,
And the same pale moon slips through the dusk.
O little buds, tap-tapping on the pane,
O white moon,
I wonder if he sleeps in woods
Where there are leaves?
Or if he lies in some black trench,
His hands, his kind hands, kindling flame that kills?
Or if, or if …
He is here now, to bid me last good-night?
This poem was written during the American involvement in WW1.(1918).
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 – 1861
“O Dreary life!” we cry, “O dreary life!”
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven’s true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle. Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land: savannah-swards
Unweary sweep: hills watch, unworn; and rife
Meek leaves drop yearly from the forest-trees,
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory. O thou God of old!
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these;—
But so much patience, as a blade of grass
Grows by contented through the heat and cold.
Edward Lear, 1812 – 1888
A
A was an ant
Who seldom stood still,
And who made a nice house
In the side of a hill.
a
Nice little ant!
*
B
B was a book
With a binding of blue,
And pictures and stories
For me and for you.
b
Nice little book!
*
C
C was a cat
Who ran after a rat;
But his courage did fail
When she seized on his tail.
c
Crafty old cat!
*
D
D was a duck
With spots on his back,
Who lived in the water,
And always said “Quack!”
d
Dear little duck!
*
E
E was an elephant,
Stately and wise:
He had tusks and a trunk,
And two queer little eyes.
e
Oh, what funny small eyes!
*
F
F was a fish
Who was caught in a net;
But he got out again,
And is quite alive yet.
f
Lively young fish!
*
G
G was a goat
Who was spotted with brown:
When he did not lie still
He walked up and down.
g
Good little goat!
*
H
H was a hat
Which was all on one side;
Its crown was too high,
And its brim was too wide.
h
Oh, what a hat!
*
I
I was some ice
So white and so nice,
But which nobody tasted;
And so it was wasted.
i
All that good ice!
*
J
J was a jackdaw
Who hopped up and down
In the principal street
Of a neighboring town.
j
All through the town!
*
K
K was a kite
Which flew out of sight,
Above houses so high,
Quite into the sky.
k
Fly away, kite!
*
L
L was a light
Which burned all the night,
And lighted the gloom
Of a very dark room.
l
Useful nice light!
*
M
M was a mill
Which stood on a hill,
And turned round and round
With a loud hummy sound.
m
Useful old mill!
*
N
N was a net
Which was thrown in the sea
To catch fish for dinner
For you and for me.
n
Nice little net!
*
O
O was an orange
So yellow and round:
When it fell off the tree,
It fell down to the ground.
o
Down to the ground!
*
P
P was a pig,
Who was not very big;
But his tail was too curly,
And that made him surly.
p
Cross little pig!
*
Q
Q was a quail
With a very short tail;
And he fed upon corn
In the evening and morn.
q
Quaint little quail!
*
R
R was a rabbit,
Who had a bad habit
Of eating the flowers
In gardens and bowers.
r
Naughty fat rabbit!
*
S
S was the sugar-tongs,
sippity-see,
To take up the sugar
To put in our tea.
s
sippity-see!
*
T
T was a tortoise,
All yellow and black:
He walked slowly away,
And he never came back.
t
Torty never came back!
*
U
U was an urn
All polished and bright,
And full of hot water
At noon and at night.
u
Useful old urn!
*
V
V was a villa
Which stood on a hill,
By the side of a river,
And close to a mill.
v
Nice little villa!
*
W
W was a whale
With a very long tail,
Whose movements were frantic
Across the Atlantic.
w
Monstrous old whale!
*
X
X was King Xerxes,
Who, more than all Turks, is
Renowned for his fashion
Of fury and passion.
x
Angry old Xerxes!
*
Y
Y was a yew,
Which flourished and grew
By a quiet abode
Near the side of a road.
y
Dark little yew!
*
Z
Z was some zinc,
So shiny and bright,
Which caused you to wink
In the sun’s merry light.
z
Beautiful zinc!
R. Harrison, Creative Enterprises 